Kwacha & Keys
Practical guides for Zambian landlords — rent, tax, deposits and the law, in plain language.
Practical guides for Zambian landlords — rent, tax, deposits and the law, in plain language.
Practical guides for Zambian landlords — rent, tax, deposits and the law, in plain language. · RSS feed
The deposit is only as strong as the inventory behind it. The room-by-room walk, the photos, the two meter readings, and the two signatures — done before the furniture arrives.
Mobile money is how rent moves — but the SMS only proves money moved, not what it was for. The thirty-second recording habit that turns a transfer into a payment on a ledger.
The deposit is not your money; you are holding it. Take it properly, keep it separate, and return it cleanly against a dated inventory. Do those three and deposits stop being a source of fights.
Add up twelve months of rent across every unit you let. If the total is above the taxpayer threshold, your invoices should be fiscalised. Here is what that means in plain language, and the short path to doing it.
Most rental trouble is really a memory problem. Here is the simple file that ends disputes before they start — one folder per property, one sub-folder per tenancy.
A written lease is shared memory, not mistrust. The clauses that earn their place — parties, term, rent, deposit, utilities, repairs, notice — in words both sides actually understand.
Tenant trouble is mostly selection trouble. Four checks — identity, income, a real prior-landlord reference, and the conversation — run the same way for every applicant.